Daily, many mobile entity thefts (including vehicles such as cars, trucks, tractors, buses, motorcycles, boats, airplanes, RVs and others) occur whose outcome might be improved by prompt notification of law enforcement/emergency response (LE/ER) agencies. In particular, with the advent of GPS location and communication capabilities, existing examples of what these capabilities can do are sometimes seen in the news and elsewhere. Sadly, in many cases such support is currently delayed by presently existing system hurdles and roadblocks which cumulatively can lead to an adverse outcome, perhaps even resulting in loss of life. Often, these multiple roadblocks need to be maneuvered one at a time in virtually a tip-to-tail sequence before determining if the needed GPS location information is even available, let alone how to rapidly and even legally get the appropriate information to the LE/ER unit needing to act on said information.
Presently, a broad selection of vehicle manufacturers GPS capable navigation options exist, including the primaries: BMW Assist, Ford SYNC, GM OnStar, Lexus Link, Hyundai Blue Link, Mercedes TeleAid, Toyota Safety Connect. The needed information is localized and provided by multiple separate service providers (e.g. On-Star, BMW and others), some of which are controlled by large industrial providers such as vehicle manufacturers while other much smaller independent aftermarket GPS equipment providers exist which substantially outnumber the vehicle manufacturers. Such GPS relevant information is typically stored electronically in the independent database of each participating provider in the industry. As time goes by and market providers expand, the number of individual databases could expand substantially making the process of getting the needed mobile entity location information to LE/ER agents progressively more complicated (and longer in time) in situations where a potential felony event may be in progress or swift medical support would save a life. Rapid appropriate LE/ER agencies involvement not only save lives but also can prevent insurmountable property damage losses and bodily injury or even death risks to innocent bystanders.
The typical anomalies needing to be dealt in such situations include determining; type of mobile entity; whether it is equipped with on-board GPS monitoring capability; whether its on-board GPS monitoring is functioning (i.e. is the subscription up to date? can it be activated?; the specifics of the entities radio frequency (RF) signals; owner's/authorized entity legal level of authorization for data/location access; any existing owner/operator pre-existing or emergency response type guidelines on file and pre-approved by the owner of record; etc.
According to the FBI published statistics, 737,142 vehicles were stolen in 2010 at a replacement cost of $4.5 billion, equating to 1 vehicle theft every 43 seconds. An additional 47,791 motorcycles were also stolen, many costing over $20,000 each, but not in the $4.5 billion cost. Only 11.8% of these 785,000 total thefts were cleared by arrests or other means. Carjacking was involved in 22,000 of the vehicle thefts, often adding personal injury or death and property damage costs not included in the $4.5 billion. Additional related costs include insurance premium increases, the cost of time spent dealing with police, vehicle rental costs, and the cost of time off from work.
In short, the bad guys WON 88.2% of the time in 2010. With vehicle theft potentially striking any one of the 250 million vehicle existing across the US and presently hitting about 700,000 vehicles annually, it's time to utilize mobile communication and tracking technology (including GPS, mobile telephony, mobile internet, RFID and others) technology to take effective action in attacking this problem.
The current situation is that millions in the US and other countries pay a penalty every year to cover others' incurred costs from vehicle thefts, something that has been with us for over 100 years. Presently, the auto insurance industry pays out about $5 Billion annually as reimbursement for vehicle thefts but this staggering amount is only a small portion of the $25+ Billion of comprehensive insurance revenue insurance companies collect from the approximate 190 million individuals carrying comprehensive at an (US wide) average annual cost of $133 per vehicle per year.
Estimates indicate that as many as 75% of vehicles produced since 2000 are reported to have wired-in (not readily disconnected) GPS modules but only 25%-30% are used because manufacturers' Navigation Package options cost $1200-$2000 at vehicle purchase and $200-$300 per year to maintain service. In 2010, there were 250 million registered vehicles in the US with an AVERAGE useful life of eight years, so most vehicles on the road today should have a built-in GPS signature available for use.
Existing technologies could substantially help theft recovery are just not being focused on beating down these astronomical theft losses. The primary system weaknesses today stem from time to action and lack of tools. According to the FBI issued 2010 vehicle theft summary report, only a 1-2 hour window exists before many stolen vehicles in city areas are “gone” via chop shop, hide-away (cargotainer (Cargo container)/semi-trailer), border crossings, etc.
While many vehicles have navigation/communication packages (e.g. BMW Assist, Ford SYNC, GM OnStar, Lexus Link, Hyundai Blue Link, Mercedes TeleAid, Toyota Safety Connect, etc.), these separate and independent operators must follow legal and liability guidelines with various process steps and information/authorization handoffs before law enforcement can get the necessary information to pursue the vehicle theft. As a result, some of these operators require that a full police report be filled out and verified prior to tracking, often taking several hours or even days.
Another operator (owned by a vehicle manufacturer) will not activate thefts recovery services until police verify that a vehicle is officially reported and confirmed stolen by the confirmed rightful owner. LE/ER agencies have stated that systems like LoJack and others only broadcast their RF signal about 3-5 miles and require special RF equipment found in only a few police cars.
What is needed, is a centralized aggregation system capable of interfacing with the LE/ER agencies to receive and clear the information requests in a timely fashion, while ensuring that the appropriate bona fides (jurisdictional, legal, liability and other technicalities) have been established and satisfied so that the one or more individual system operators of navigation/communication packages can provide information and even control of the mobile entity to the LE/ER agents.